Fraser report rates Sk’aadgaa Naay in middle

Sk’aadgaa Naay has finished in the middle of the Fraser Institute’s controversial annual rankings of BC elementary schools, well ahead of most northern and remote schools. This year’s rankings were released Monday, and Sk’aadgaa Naay received a ranking of 436 out of 860 schools. The school performance improved on almost every factor that the Fraser Institute uses, with scores in grade 4 reading, writing and numeracy and grade 7 reading and writing all up from last year, and grade 7 numeracy staying almost the same. Sk’aadgaa Naay students performed better than the provincial average in grade 4 reading, and grade 4 and 7 writing, and pretty much the same as the provincial average in grade 4 numeracy and grade 7 reading, according to the Fraser report. Only in grade 7 numeracy were the scores slightly lower than the provincial average. School district superintendent Angus Wilson said while it’s good to see the upward trend, the data used to generate the Fraser report is not all that significant, especially when it comes to small schools. The test scores come only from grade 4 and grade 7 classes, so if a school has a larger or more motivated grade 4 class than last year, the results can improve without reflecting anything important about the school or its teachers, Mr. Wilson said. One interesting thing about the Fraser report, Mr. Wilson said, is the schools that received similar rankings to Sk’aadgaa Naay. None of them are located in northern BC. In the list, Sk’aadgaa Naay appears in the company of elementary schools from Victoria, Langley, Surrey, Richmond, Chilliwack and White Rock. Tahayghen in Masset is not mentioned in the report, as it has less than fifteen students in grade 4 and therefore is not assessed.